SEPARATION MOVEMENT IN NORTHERN QUEENSLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 126, 7 October 1868, Page 3

SEPARATION MOVEMENT IN NORTHERN QUEENSLAND.

(F?-om the Sydney Morning Herald.') Some time ago there was an abortive movement in the northern part of Queensland in favour of separation. That having proved to be at least premature, the causes that led to the movement have re-appeared in the form of a demand for provincial sub-divi-sions. '1 his demand arises contemporaneously with an opposite tendency in New Zealand. In that colony the provincial system has been in operation for some years, and there is now a movement in the direction of reduced localism and greater centralisation. These two opposite movements indicate different stages in the development of political experience. The complaint in Queensland has originated mainly in the alleged unequal distribution of the money spent on public Avorks. Out of a debt of about six millions sterling, contracted for various public services, principally railways, it is alleged that nearly fivesixths have been spent in the favoured districts whose commerce concentrates in the metropolis. It may be that an equal~proportion of population and wealth is to be found in the same districts, and in that case the burden and the benefit are in relation to one another, for it is the annual revenue that pays the interest of the debt, and that revenue is not drawn from each district in proportion to its area but in proportion to the number and expenditure of its tax-paying population. The feeling, however, prevails that if each province settled for itself the amount of debt that should be incurred for railways and other improvements, more caution would be exercised in incurring obligations, and all cause of complaint would be removed. The disposition to spend is probably pretty equal, there being nowhere any perceptible willingness to go without public works; but the adjustment of the fair share to each portion is a thing which no central Government even with the purest intentions, ever achieved — and Governments do not always have the purest intentions. Nor is there any need for loading the central Executive with this delicate and difficult duty, unless it can be shewn that great advantages accrue to the country generally from depriving localities of the initiative in this matter. The physical geography of Queensland is conveniently adapted for an application of the provincial principle. It has a succession of seaports, each of which is the natural outltt for the commerce of a separate area. No conceivable arrangement of railways could concentrate all the traffic upon any one of these ports, though there is room for a struggle as to the trade for some portions of the remoter interior. The principle adopted in Tasmauia seems very applicable to provincial undertakings. There the railway from Launceston to Deloraine is being made with money borrowed under the advantage of a Government guarantee, while yet the Government is secured against loss by the resource of a contingent tax on the property of the district. If the line, which belongs to a company, pays six per cent, on its capital stock, there will be no tax required ; but if there should be any deficiency to make up, the district benefited by the railway alone bears the burden. And this burden is voluntarily assumed. The principle is applicableeven where there is not the intervention of a company, for the province can make its own railway, and make the debt a charge upon all the property within its limits. There would, of course, be a danger of different provinces competing with one another rashly, and though the taxation would be a check upon excess in this direction, still it might not operate till extravagance had run to a dangerous extent and great financial embarrassment had accrued. Provincial Governments are not infallible in their judgment, even when every pound spent is a penny tax. The rage for local improvements is quite as strong in small as in large corporations. In New Zealand this fact has been exhibited very distinctly, and the General Government has had to come to the aid of the provinces, and cover the local loans with the shield of a general guarantee. This course was found to be necessary to sustain the tottering financial credit of the different provinces, and to enable them to borrow money at less than usurious rates. In Canada, on the other hand, where the Government began by guaranteeing provincial loans, it found itself forced to take up that guarantee and pay for the indiscretions of local municipalities. There is also a tendency when provincial government is once established, for it to go on towards an indefinite subdivision. Just as in a corporation there have to be wards, so in a large province there would come to be counties, and these separate counties, or aggregations of them, would come in course

of time to be as suspicious and jealous about their respective rights as the larger districts ' were before them ; and with this subdivision would come not only a great multiplication of petty officials, but such a breaking up of governmental scope as would take railway construction out of the hands of the local authorities. There are advantages and disadvantages attached to the system asked for in Queensland, and the practical question for consideration is not so much which side has the actual preponderance, as in which direction the natural development of the colony will probably lead. The system might turn out to be a great benefit ; on the other hand, it might turn out to be a great curse. But if any effective check could be established to prevent its probable abuses it certainly has great recommendations. The exact line between what it is best to devolve on municipal action, and what it is best to leave to the central Government, ha 3 not as yet been defined with accuracy in any of these colonies. Perhaps there is no fixed line. It may vary for each of them, and for each at different stages of its progress. Experience would soon show where the line should be if public spirit and self-reliance existed in their proper measure, but where we have to solve a. political problem under conditions of much political infirmity, not to say of corruption, a satisfactory answer is not easily obtained. The best we can do is to keep on approximating, with considerable oscillations, hoping to settle down to the right mean at last.